


In A Looking-Glass World

by Pandelion



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen, a bit of mindfuckery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-16
Updated: 2012-05-16
Packaged: 2017-11-05 11:30:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandelion/pseuds/Pandelion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fury's best friend is in an institution for insisting that he's Iron Man, superhero. Then Steve Rogers shows up and things get a bit complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In A Looking-Glass World

**Author's Note:**

> A little something that wouldn't leave me alone. :)

"How's he doing?" Fury asks, eyes on the small window set high in the door. The nurse next to him sighs.

"Some days are better than others," she says. "He's still very vocal about his--his delusions, but he's competent in every other aspect of his daily life."

Fury nods; it's the same as his last visit and he's long ceased to hold out hope for anything else. "Is he up to visitors today?"

The nurse smiles. "Today's been a good day, so far. Just a few minor comments, mostly about the computer."

"He always did like his toys," Fury says, smiling as she moves to unlock the door. She doesn't follow him in, but the door stays open. Taking a seat in the only chair, he looks at the man sitting cross-legged on the narrow bed, focused on the tablet computer he's holding. It's a familiar sight, in a setting that's becoming more and more familiar with every visit.

"How are you doing, Tony?" he asks and the man looks up.

"Director!" he says, grinning and Fury smiles back automatically, doesn't bother trying to correct his friend. "Still weird to see you without that eye patch. Where's your right hand, the lovely Agent Hill?" Tony leans to one side, as if Fury's associate and friend might be hiding behind Fury.

"Maria had a meeting," Fury says and Tony accepts that, nods and settles back, fingers still tapping absently at the screen of his tablet. "How are you doing, Tony?"

Tony shrugs. "About as well as ever, I suppose. Some days, it almost seems like a dream, you know?" His dark eyes go distant and his fingers still. "Like, some dream I had once, a long time ago, where I had a world at my fingertips and everything was worse and better at the same time." The fingers resume tapping, slower now. "Other days, it's so real I can almost touch it and everything here fades, because it pales in comparison."

Fury asks him about what Tony's doing with the tablet and Tony launches into a description of code and numbers and programs and Fury nods and smiles and lets it wash over him. It's a good reminder that this is still his best friend, still the Tony Stark that he's known for nearly ten years, now.

Some days, all he can see is a stranger.

~*~

He gets the call just as he's packing up to leave work for the day, three days after his visit with Tony. It's Sitwell, from the front desk, which is better than Fury's boss with another case to review. "What can I do for you, Sitwell?" he asks, balancing the phone between his ear and shoulder as he continues to pack up cases into their folders and stack the finished documents in his out box.

"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Fury, but I've got a man here who's asking to see you." Fury can't think of anyone who would be coming to see him at work, not this time of day and he frowns for a moment at his paperwork.

"What's his name?" he asks.

"Steve Rogers, sir. Should I send him up?"

Fury looks at his desk, at the half-packed briefcase, and sighs. "Yeah, sure, send him up." It's barely five minutes before there's a knock at his door and he says, "Come in," as he pushes the last file into his briefcase.

The man who comes in is tall, broad across the shoulders, with blond hair and a confused expression. "Sir?"

"Have a seat, Mr. Rogers," Fury says, indicating the two chairs in front of his desk. Rogers hesitates, then perches on the edge of one, back ramrod straight. "How can I help you?"

"I, uh," Steve pauses, visibly gathers himself, then continues, "I was hoping you could tell me what's going on? What happened to SHIELD?"

Fury goes still, because he's heard about SHIELD. He knows that it stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, that it's a counter-terrorism and intelligence agency.

And he only knows that much because it's part of Tony Stark's delusions.

~*~

There's an unfamiliar nurse at the counter when Fury walks into the front lobby the next morning, Steve Rogers and Maria trailing behind him. She gives him an odd look when he asks to see Tony, but has them sign in and leads him to Tony's room with no comment.

Tony's laid out on the floor this time, muttering to himself, but he sits up when Fury clears his throat. "Hey, Nick, buddy. You miss me that much you couldn't wait a full week?" he asks with a grin.

"Not me, Tony," Fury says, waving Rogers forward. "I brought--"

"Captain," Tony interrupts, scrambling upright and grinning at Rogers. "Still looking good for an old fart."

"That's no way to talk to your elder, Mr. Stark," Rogers reprimands, but he's grinning back and his voice is openly fond.

Tony waves his words away. "Pfft, whatever, Capsicle. You come to fix this thing?"

"Tony," Fury interrupts, "do you know Mr. Rogers?"

"Steve?" Tony says. "Of course I know Steve. He's Captain America!"

Rogers flushes, but he doesn't deny it.Fury looks at Maria, sees his worry reflected in her face.

Things have just gotten complicated.

~*~

They end up around a table in the main room, Fury across from Tony and Rogers on Tony's right, Maria across from him. Tony and Rogers are still grinning at each other and finishing each other's sentences as they share memories that Fury has never heard of, full of names like 'Hawkeye' and 'Hulk.' Maria's looking quietly freaked out and Fury's feeling much the same, though he takes care to school his expression into something more serene.

"Tony," he says and both Tony and Steve look at him, attentive and looking so very sane. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

Tony huffs and slouches in his chair. "If I understood," he says, "I wouldn't be here."

"What's that supposed to mean, Tony?" Maria says. "You expect us to believe that you're not you? That you're not the man we've known for the last decade?"

"Yes!" Tony says. "That's exactly what I expect you to believe! I am Tony Stark, billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist!"

"No, you're not!" Maria retorts.

Tony opens his mouth to say something and that's when Fury wakes up, hands slapping against curved plastic until it finally lifts away with a hiss. Agent Coulson is standing over him, looking about as worried as Fury's ever seen him.

"What the hell?" Fury asks, sitting up and looking around, one hand coming up to check that he's still got the eye patch on. The structure around them looks alien, with a number of pods like the one Fury iss still sitting in scattered around the room. The room is in varying states of destruction, with rubble making piles here and there and cracks spreading across some of the walls.

"You, Agent Hill, Mr. Stark, and Captain Rogers were taken by the Heffran, sir," Coulson reports. "I'm sorry it took us so long to find you."

The pod next to Fury hisses open and Agent Hill pushes herself upright. She looks at Fury for a moment before comprehension dawns. "Sir?"

"Aliens," Fury says. "Probably some sort of virtual reality."

"God," Hill says with feeling. "That was...bizarre. Were you a lawyer, sir?"

"I think so. Where are Stark and Rogers?"

Coulson points over to a pair of pods half buried by rubble. "Their pods were cracked by the rescue efforts," Coulson explains. "They should be unharmed, though."

Fury rubs at his forehead. There are memories in his head, of years working in a law firm, ten years of Tony Stark being the worst best friend ever and even a few of a single disastrous date with Hill, but under them, he can remember becoming the director of SHIELD, finding Captain America frozen in the Arctic, dealing with demi-gods from another realm. "This is going to be one hell of a debriefing," he mutters.

Hill nods. "You can say that again, sir."


End file.
